On Wednesday 10 July, 2013, Neil Brand was presented as Fellow of Aberystwyth University.

Neil, who graduated in English and Drama from Aberystwyth, was presented by Professor Robert Meyrick, Head of the School of Art. See full article.

Neil was at the heart of the BBC’s Film Music season which plays across BBC4 and all the BBC national radio networks in September – he wrote and presented the 3-part series ‘Sound of Cinema – the Music that made the Movies’ for BBC4 and also appeared on Radio 3 and again on BBC 4 presenting the Film Prom from the Royal Albert Hall.

Neil was made a Fellow of University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, his old university, in July 2013.

Neil shot a 3-part TV series for BBC4 on Film Music – titled The Sounds of Cinema, which aired in the autumn.

Asquith’s Underground, with Neil’s full orchestral score commissioned by the BBCSO and Barbican Concert Hall was released theatrically by the BFI throughout the UK in January 2013. It garnered 4- and 5-star reviews in national and local press and will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray in June.

The BBC commissioned Neil to adapt and score The Wind in the Willows as a concert piece for actors and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, to be recorded for broadcast on Radio 4 and Radio 3 at Christmas 2013.

The Wind in the Willows, starring Stephen Mangan, Clare Skinner, Philip Jackson and the BBC Symphony Orchestra was highly successfully broadcast on Radios 3 and 4 and there are plans for another epic radio piece for 2014.

 

 

Neil’s music was highly praised in Michael Eaton’s series of five radio plays ‘Dickens in London’ adapted for film by Chris Newby.

Neil appeared on BBC1’s The One Show and in two radio documentaries for BBC Radio 4 as well as acting in Mark Lawson’s new radio play ‘The Man Who Knows’ produced by Eoin O’ Callaghan for BBC Belfast.